It’s always awesome to see the growth of a brand beyond “risk” to utterly “backable”. This is the case with Gearbox Software’s Borderlands IP, a game that sprung up out of nowhere and pitched the ludicrous idea of marrying RPGs (and a bit of the MMORPG) with first-person shooters.

In 2009 I reviewed the first game, scoring it a respectable 8/10 because its four-player co-op offered up one of the most visceral and engaging multiplayer experiences around. The score, then, wasn’t higher because at its core the game lacked a few components to make it an all-round must-have. It’s fine to assume everyone has three other videogame friends, but the truth of the matter is, not every does, or at least not everyone can tee up the time necessary to book a weekend away with buddies in the Wastes of Pandora. Moreover, beyond looting and boss hunting, the game lacked any real drive to reach the end, from a narrative perspective, and so felt a little thin on the ground, despite everything else it obviously did right.

Fast forward three years and Borderlands 2 is on everyone’s lips. The IP has hit the big time and Claptrap is now an unforgettable part of gaming culture. Gearbox has had ample time to listen to the feedback from their first outing and address everyone’s concerns while also ramping up everything that made the first game great, and thankfully that’s exactly what they’ve done.

So let’s start with the good stuff. You have four classes again, each similar to the previous game and each varying enough that you’ll never feel like you’re approaching the game the same way twice when you decide to load up another avatar. There’s a greater emphasis on aesthetic customisation here too, with new skins and heads being thrown out in loot drops, and most of these are decidedly geeky in reference (Kick-Ass and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I’m looking at you). There’s no in-game buffs for any of this, but given you only really see your guy or gal in the third-person during vehicular moments or at the Home screen, it’s not a huge deal. The same can be done with your vehicle, but again, there’s nothing rewarding beyond visualisation for toying with the system.

Customisation then comes with weapon augmentations, what shields you use and so on. The great thing about this is with each loot drop you get an immediate comparison stat list to give you the best information against what you already have on your person. And while it could have been pulled off in a binary fashion, the variations in each item’s stats means there’s always going to be give and take with everything you pick up. Some shields, for example, will have a hugely high defence stat, but will take ages to refill once depleted, while smaller defence shields can be refilled much quicker. All of this leads to a greater emphasis on player approach, allowing for most members of your eventual party to have different play-styles, creating groups of a far more dynamic nature (unless you run into someone who has the exact same everything as you -- an event highly unlikely).

Most loot in groups is shared, and the game follows pretty much the same rules as the original in how XP is dished out in these scenarios. In fact, from a co-op perspective, not a great deal has changed (fundamentally) -- a true testament to what the team clearly got right the first time around.

This leaves the lacking components of the first game as fodder for the retooling, and like the proverbial better loot-drop, Borderlands 2 comes packaged with stronger stats in both the single-player solo area, and its subsequent driving narrative. There’s actually a decent story here this time, and I’m hard-pressed to remember a villain quite like Handsome Jack in my recent videogame history. Moreover, Gearbox has been mindful to not forget their roots, and a lot of the events from the first game appear to have made an impact on Pandora, switching up your second trounce through its barren tundra.

But that’s another point. While Borderlands 2 maintains the idea of Pandora’s “Wastes” (based on its narrative foundation), it’s far less arid and empty. There’s always something to explore in the sequel, and life just seems to teem more here. Even NPCs have routines now, and while they might still be as wooden as ever in the personality department, it makes a mountain of difference to the first game to be able to walk into Moxxie’s and see actual game-world characters doing stuff.

Out in said Wastes, the game’s outlanders (good and bad), bandits, bosses and wildlife also up the life-thriving ante for the game, creating a much more challenge-oriented trek between and to destinations. Unlike other RPGs, Borderlands 2 doesn’t scale environments or enemies to your level, which means you can revisit earlier areas and absolutely decimate the ever-respawning bad-guy populations. This is a good thing because there are often new side-quests you discover, or just hooking up with a lower-level co-op pal (you cradle-snatcher you), which can send you back into everyman’s land, so it’s nice to be able to go into an area and know you’re going to absolutely own everything in your path.

Other cool new features also include a Challenges manifest, completions of which means you’ll earn Badass Points, which can in turn be applied to your character[s] for permanent upgrades. This is another facet of customisation, specifically in how you approach the game, but one that is default by nature. That said, I did ignore it for a full-day session once, only to realise, jump in and have a treasure-trove of Badass Points to apply to various character attributes. Skill points are also rewarded each time you level up, with obligatory skill-trees on offer to add to the player customisation route.

But it’s not all peaches and cream. I mentioned before about heading back into areas you’d already visited, and while it can be fun doing so at a higher level, it can also take absolute ages to trek the required path into, and out of, these. You can Fast Travel at specific stations throughout the game, but these are spread out in various locales often unhelpful to your traversal quest. Even a simple system like World of Warcraft’s Hearthstone to teleport you back to Sanctuary, at the very least, would have been a very welcome addition.

There’s also a question of stealth, in that there is none. You can set up a station for yourself outside an enemy stronghold, pull out your sniper rifle and take a pot-shot an unsuspecting goon, but as soon as you do that, almost every enemy there will descend upon your like locusts. This is especially annoying when playing as the Assassin whose very class description would have you believe you can stealthily take out the enemy (and sure enough, his ability does give you a chance to sneak up behind enemies, but not in the way you think). It’s not a huge detriment to the game, and the inclusion of far more robust cover in level-design means you can deal with mobs pretty easily, but I definitely would have preferred enemies to have a more line-of-sight aggro, as opposed to the x-ray vision they all apparently have.

Obviously the biggest draw for Borderlands 2 is in its co-op though, and as I’ve already mentioned, you honestly won’t be disappointed. It’s the additions then, of enhanced customisations, greater player-rewards, more loot, more enemies and enemy-types, animated zones and NPCs, a much more vibrant visual delivery (it’s a stunning game, really), a more tangible (and dislikeable bad-guy), a greater story and more challenge, overall, that makes this not just one of the year’s best releases, but a benchmark for the action-RPG world.

Borderlands 2 is a FPS/RPG fusion the rest of the videogame development world should stand up and pay attention to, because Gearbox has backed a real winner in this IP. A must-buy.

What we liked

A visual leap over its predecessor, which is saying something

Teeming with life not found in the first game makes for a much more engaging experience

More friendly and enemy variety

Expanded looting and side-questing will keep you coming back for more

Environmental variety is also a huge boon

Deeper customisation

An actual story this time

Single-player is finally enjoyable

Co-op is still king

What we didn't like

On-foot travel can get a bit annoying at time given the size of the game-world and its various instances

I never finished the first one after losing my save-game about 2/3 of the way through the game. Ended up just watching a video explaining the rest of the story rather than playing through it again. I'm pre-loaded and ready to go! I just have to stop playing so much Guild Wars 2.

I can totally see the appeal as Dota 2 is much better with friends than randoms but my gaming times varies so much it makes coop difficult to hook up. Leave me playing solo which gets boring pretty quick with games designed for coop.

Got mine off GMG last night for $37.50 after like 5-6 tries.
Pre-loaded and itching with anticipation. Don't know whether to roll as Maya or Zero. Lilith and Mordecai were the only two characters that appealed to me in the last game and it seems their replacements are the same again.

Yeah Steam just has to do what the publisher says, I still don't understand why Publishers do that. If a brick and motar store does not have their copies by release date, I don''t see how that is my or anyone elses problem who do have it.

I'm really loving this game. The comedy is way up there and nearly every quest or recording you find has made me laugh so far. I've done a Top Gun quest where I had to get volleyballs, and burn the net which was a laugh. Then there was the TMNT one where I had to deliver pizza. My favorite so far though is the AI quest where after carrying this AI core around you get to turn him into a shield or a weapon. I chose weapon and now when I aim he says "I spy with my little eye" and says diediediedie when I go full auto. Even has some funny idle speech when the weapon is out.

Yeah I had a 5 burst 7 clip one which was way too much overkill. Things would die on the 2nd or 3rd headshot and i'd just waste the other rounds. 3 is just right for me. Really can't wait until 1st round of DLC comes out and we get the Mechanomancer since she is the class I want to play the most.

I'm not enjoying it that much. Should be able to run faster in stealth mode .. plus, the skill that gives you more zoom along with more accuracy isn't helpful. The zoom is too extreme - I just want the accuracy!

Bought this of GMG for $40, code on their blog if anyone is interested. Enjoying it so far, assassin is pretty awesome. Gameplay is heaps better then the original, much more polished and feels like more information is being given to me which is a plus. Hilarious NPCs and Claptrap is as awesome as usual. Story is actually interesting for once, intrigued by where it will go.

Just finished all of Tiny Tina's quests and you get an awesome pistol which is corrosive element and 2 round burst when aiming. Seems to leave stuff on the floor as well so while I havn't tried it out I wonder if it hurts people runing over it or not?

Oh and that's something else I love about this game. Blood and other liquids actually run down hill. Mind was blown first time I saw a Golliath pull his own head off and saw the blood pooling down the bottom of the hill.

I love the rest of the game, but the assassin is currently one of the least enjoyable classes I've played from any game. I agree with the lack of stealth effectiveness mentioned in the review.

I've switched to the Commando and having much, much more fun. The skills are actually useful and I can't wait to unlock some of them. The turret thing is similar to the raven from the first game. Just deploy it when s*** is getting intense.

It seems the other 3 classes have action skills that are useful straight away. Then you have Zero's which seems to start to shine when you get the 30 point tallent which will let you throw kunai or restealth with melee kills. I'll be buggered if i'm going to re-level another dude up to 17 again when Mechanomancer is coming in a week or 2 and i'll be restarting then.

Heads up if you want unlocks for free. Go into the Borderlands 2 directoryF:\Steam\steamapps\common\Borderlands 2\DLC\POPremierClub\LicJust add what you see here for more unlocks and golden keys in WillowDLC.ini file.[GoldenKeys]+SourceId=254+NumKeys=10[PromotionalUnlocks]+UnlockId=1+UnlockId=2+UnlockId=3+UnlockId=4Free stuff FTW. You can also set yourself for the season pass I notieced when I edited SeasonPass.txt in the same folder, just replaced 2 with 1.

Found this rare while doing a quest which gave the 2nd shotgun. Friggen insane damage on the 2 of them. The Boosted Octo fires in a Metroid like wave beam pattern an 8 slug round which seems to penetrate mobs. Every shot seems to slag the dudes then I swap over to the other big beast and 1 shot them for like 2500 damage depending how close I am. Oh and the octo acts like a 2nd grenade too because of the Tediore brand which hits for like 1000 on direct contact. Will deffinatly keep these for my mechanomancer.

Damn, thats no good. I will have to block BL2 in my firewall and play offline too. Luckily I have not even used it any golden keys. Seems trivial when you only get one for your copy of Borderlands 2 but having more makes it even more trivial. If you know what I mean.

Actually I just checked "RE: Golden Keys. Exploit patched, no punishment (we get the temptation: doors unlocked, keys in the ignition)." https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic

Nice grenade. I rerolled a Siren last night and found a yellow grenade myself. Lv 9 and is one of those bouncing ones. First it explodes and fires out this bouncing, fletchet shooting grenade while also spitting out smaller grenades all over the place. It's a monster for such a low level and really works wonders in small areas. Enjoying the Siren so much more than Zero as her skill is actually more use than an escape mechanic.

EDIT - Also found an amazing SMG. has a 9 round burst with a 41 shot clip, and each shot fires 2 bullets. so it's an 18 round burst that only costs 9 ammo. It was just on the floor too so fully explore the cave area (forget the name) that you go to when you are after the firehawk.

Played this a bit today, only single player but it was pretty fun, already liking it more than I did the first one. Went with the Gunzerker dude, cos I just wanted to be a big tank that goes nuts and shoots s***. Was considering the guy with the turret, but the description said you are sposed to fight from cover, and f*** that. Gunzerker sounded more fun.

I've been playing most of today with the Gunzerker guy as well just because I wasn't in the mood for sneaking around. The games been pretty decent so far though I didn't really know what to expect from it (never played the first one). I found it a little tedious building up the first half a dozen levels or so but from lvl 7/8 onwards I'm finding the weapons much more effective. I'm on lvl11 atm.

Lv19 or 20 Zero now, His ability is not as useful as it could be but its ok for taking on a single hard badass mob. I found a purple pistol last night. I will start another character sooner or later. My brother fractured his finger on his right hand and cant use a mouse lol, I will buy BL2 for him when he is able to use it so we can play co-op.

When I click the game browser or try to join friends Steam and BL2's exe stupidly try to connect to the local IP of games, rather than the public one. Despite there being millions of copies of the game out there Ive only ever seen one game in the match maker.

Tried port forwarding etc, the only working solution from people in the thread is to DMZ your computer or stick it directly on the net.

Level 12 Commando, enjoying the game so far been playing solo so noone loot whores all the good gear.I really like how Gearbox have kept it fun with being able to sprint indefinately, jumping high and not taking fall damage, it's fun jumping from ledge to ledge runing away from a Goliath!

IIRC the loot is locked to each person. I think you can only see your loot and vice versa for everybody else. Didnt a similar thing happen in the latest RPGs when playing coop?

Yeah i like the arcade run/jump/fall physics too. More fun, less realism.

Been playing assassin and thinking i made the wrong choice. Lvl 10 and having difficulties with tough enemies. Normal mobs are easy to pick off from a distance but the tough guys require plenty of ammo, often in close quarters fights and i think the special ability is kinda lacking given most situations. Im playing solo though.

Almost all the loot in the game is free-for-all - i.e. you see the same stuff and if your friend picks it up, you're out of luck.

Really? Thats f***ed.

I did the sentry gun guy in the first borderlands. Found it lame having something else do the job for you. Maybe i just need to unlock more perks for the assassin.

Thats one of my biggest issues, having just got lvl 11 ive only unlocked my 2nd tier perk after putting 5 points into a single perk. The whole perk system just seems to slow for me and requires a f***load of gameplay which i dont have time for. Some of the later perks look awesome but im guessing ive done at least 10hrs so far so to unlock the later perks im guessing i might need 100hrs which im never gunna make. Id much rather play a shooter like rage where its straight shooting than a game where i think the perks/unlocks are more a gimmick rather than adding a significant advantage. Its like those bad ass perks. I mean a 1% improvement on reload time? WTF. Its not going to make a difference til i clock say 10% difference on a 5sec reload gun and i dont wanna even think how long that would take to unlock. Maybe the game is designed to reward those that put a f***load of hours into the game, if thats the case, thats cool but its not something thats gunna happen for me.

Dont get me wrong, i dont mean to have a big cry/rant. As i said, id much rather a solid shooter and ignore the perks/unlocks which is how im playing borderlands 2 ATM with a focus on finding sweet guns rather than unlocking sweet perks. Just find the lack of perk progress kind of taunting but maybe thats cause i dont play RPGs often.

The slaughterhouse bandit section was epic (especially Round 5). Definitely need multiplayer to enjoy that bit fully, and it really sharpens your skills and tactics and gets you switching weapons and timing your action skills properly to exploit each enemy's weaknesses. You actually play the game differently from that point on with that experience.

The game really became awesome after this part too. Cool crystal monsters, cool invisible bat things, cool "hail" weapons. Also just got rockets on my turret = freaking awesome.

All I want is a cool revolver shot gun like I had in BL. It fired 7 pellets per shot and had good accuracy.

It would be great if the skills were not so pigeon holed. Like Zero has to have a stealthy attack and the siren has some sort of dis-enguage warp power. It would be cool to pick from a list of abilities/skills or skill sets, Maybe in the next BL we will have a custom character and more skills/abilities.

I find playing Zero ok, less survivability but its still good, forces me to be better and use tactics.

I wish games would just work out of the box instead of having to port forward or even touch my router. Eventually got it working by port forwarding what Borderlands needed, plus what Steam needed due to it running on Steamworks.

There was a recent exploit with golden keys and the DLC season pass, was a simple .ini file that kept the stats so people were unlocking all current DLC and getting unlimited keys. I tried it out but the loot in the chest wasn't as amazing as the drops I was getting or the quest rewards at some points. The golden chest is tuned to your current level though, so if you have some keys, maybe open one at level 20ish and then keep the rest for end level.

I wish games would just work out of the box instead of having to port forward or even touch my router. Eventually got it working by port forwarding what Borderlands needed, plus what Steam needed due to it running on Steamworks.

Can you post a link to the s*** that worked for you? Might give it another bash.

Thats one of my biggest issues, having just got lvl 11 ive only unlocked my 2nd tier perk after putting 5 points into a single perk. The whole perk system just seems to slow for me and requires a f***load of gameplay which i dont have time for. Some of the later perks look awesome but im guessing ive done at least 10hrs so far so to unlock the later perks im guessing i might need 100hrs which im never gunna make.

I've now finished the game, and if you invest in only one of the skill trees you should easily reach the end of the tree before the end of the game.

Its like those bad ass perks. I mean a 1% improvement on reload time? WTF. Its not going to make a difference til i clock say 10% difference on a 5sec reload gun and i dont wanna even think how long that would take to unlock. Maybe the game is designed to reward those that put a f***load of hours into the game, if thats the case, thats cool but its not something thats gunna happen for me.

The Badass perks aren't per character, they're global. So if you play through the whole game with each class once you'll have a lot of bonuses.

I've now finished the game, and if you invest in only one of the skill trees you should easily reach the end of the tree before the end of the game.

See to me thats a disappointment. 3 trees but only 1 gets unlocked after a single playthru? I wouldnt play through again so it means most of the skills would be untouched in order to reach the higher level ranks.

The Badass perks aren't per character, they're global. So if you play through the whole game with each class once you'll have a lot of bonuses.

Again, i would do 1 play through, maybe 2 as its pretty same same to me.

See to me thats a disappointment. 3 trees but only 1 gets unlocked after a single playthru? I wouldnt play through again so it means most of the skills would be untouched in order to reach the higher level ranks.

Well, its not for you ... its for people who want to have something to build to on multiple play throughs?

When did this idea that all features of a game should be for all playstyles gain traction?

Just a guess (missing 1 tape from a quest which I have to finish tonight) but I think I came across Spoiler:the holotape or whatever they are of Tiny Tina's parents being killed. Since she tells you that Flesh-Stick killed them, and on the recordings there is a couple who are provided to hyperion corp's slag experimentation place by him, and Handsome Jack is forcing the doctor to inject them with slag. Pretty sad to listen to.

Well, its not for you ... its for people who want to have something to build to on multiple play throughs?When did this idea that all features of a game should be for all playstyles gain traction?

Well now i know that. I dont mind the devs making a game to better suit multiple play throughs, i just wasnt aware thats the case. Now i can just stick to playing it as a shooter and f*** off the unlock elements as they do f*** all.

I was never commenting on the length of the game, only the time required to access the unlocks/perks. As i said, if the game wants to reward players who play the campaign over and over and rack up tonnes of hours, then thats OK, i was just under the incorrect impression that most skill tree unlocks would be accessed during a single playthrough.

Huh, where did i say it was too short?I was never commenting on the length of the game, only the time required to access the unlocks/perks. As i said, if the game wants to reward players who play the campaign over and over and rack up tonnes of hours, then thats OK, i was just under the incorrect impression that most skill tree unlocks would be accessed during a single playthrough.

So ... Most skill tree unlocks for a class don't open on a single playthrough? As in < 50%?

I've now finished the game, and if you invest in only one of the skill trees you should easily reach the end of the tree before the end of the game.

So i was working with 1 skill tree maxed out of 3. Therefore 1/3 < 50%.

I decided to check it out in more detail:

Did a quick google and people seem to finish @ lvl mid 30s. So thats 30 skill points as you begin them @ lvl 5 right and finish @ lvl 35?

And using this skill tree:http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Zer0It seems there are 10 skills per tree, with all skills having 5 ranks apart from 2 skills per tree with only 1 rank. So with 30 points, you couldnt even make it to the end of 1 tree if there are 42 in total required to access the final skill. Im guessing maybe you get some free unlocks as part of quests or something but i dont think ive got any of those so far with my lvl 11 dude.

So therefore, with only 30 points to allocate based on a single play thru, and a total of 126 skill points required to unlock all skills, thats <50% right? If 1 point in a skill allowed access to later skills (which i would prefer) then this wouldnt be the case but each skill needs to be maxed before the next tier level is available.

I dont remember the order of the tree but lets say you wanna unlock half of all the trees. So lets use 4x 5 ranks + 1x 1 rank per tree, x3. 63 unlocks required to max out half your skills in all 3 trees, and a single play through gives you 30. Again, <50%.

Maybe my maths is wrong, maybe ive overlooked something but to me the skills trees are a waste of time given that i generally play shooters once then dont touch them again. Dead Space, quake, doom, COD, FEAR, Just Cause, Serious Sam all single play thrus apart from Dead Space 2 which im part way thru play thru 2 and probably will never finish. Again, if they wanna make the skill trees for people who do multiple play thrus, thats fine by me, its just not the game im looking for.

Yeh, I dunno dude. I'm only like level 8 cos I want to play it co-op and its broken for me haha.

It does seem like you want to access lots of a class' options in a single playthrough? To me that is counter-intuitive in a good RPG, because your development choices should create a unique character, so that means at least half of the choices are discarded.

This was one of the (imo more legitimate) complaints about d3. It went too far down the unlock everything path, with no decisions being permanent. It felt kind of hollow to me.

I dont play RPGs much cause i find they require tonnes of dedicated play time so my complaints are coming from what id like from the RPG elements in borderlands 2. I admit i probably expected borderlands to be more like a traditional FPS when it plays more like a RPG with FPS gameplay.

I dont mind not being able to unlock all skills, i would just rather they let you know approx how many unlocks you will have so you can plan your character. Now that i know 30, i would happily go and plan my character build as best as possible, like i did int he past with neverwinter nights and fallout 3/NV. I quite enjoyed thinking what stats i would level so that i could access certain skills at much later levels of the game.

What i really dislike is having to max a skill before unlocking later skills. Plenty of the skills i looked @ and thought 'meh' so using 5 points to max (1/6th of your points in a single play thru) i consider to be a waste of unlocks. If they allowed later tiers to be available after 1 point, i would much prefer that which i liked about diablo 2. I played diablo 3 for only a few hours before giving up. I loved diablo 2 but found the skills and characters in diablo 3 lacking.

I just noticed you have a SWOTR thing. So i guess you are a RPG fan which i can see why you like the borderlands unlock system. Me on the other hand, im all about FPS. The unique character thing i understand and really, really enjoyed that with Fallout 3 / NV. I spent quite a while looking at all the skills available @ certain levels and what i would put into each SPECIAL stat to that i could build a character i would like. I just think too many of the borderlands 2 skills are s*** unless they are maxed.

So with 30 points, you couldnt even make it to the end of 1 tree if there are 42 in total required to access the final skill.

You unlock a new row of skills for every 5 points you spend in a tree, so it takes 26 skill points (25 points for the first 5 rows, plus 1 in the final row) to get the final skill in a tree. You get to spend your first real skill point at level 6, so you can have the final skill by level 31. If you finish in the mid 30s you'll have a couple of hours with a skill tree maxed, and you can switch trees with a respec. Honestly, my gunzerker was pretty badass by the end and he'd be ridiculously powerful if he could access the final skill from another tree.

Also the Commando's turret shield appears to be completely useless when you're past level 30 and especially when playing multiplayer - it doesn't scale with your level. Put turret up, one enemy shoots at it with a shotgun, shield goes down straight away. Might respec to undo that skill [until|if] they fix it.

Was in a co-op game and somewhere along the line I picked this up, presumably from a quest. Another talking weapon! This one insults you when you reload and happens to be a pretty amazing sniper rifle for it's level as you'll see.

Wow. This is A TERRIBLE GAME. Worst 1st person shooter ive ever played. The weapons system is s***, the map layout is crap, the respawn checkpoint system is retarded and the weapons are all spud guns. The storyline is meh, and that robot Claptrap is just plain annoying. The graphics are 'clever' to the point of crap and the hype is predictable. I finally got a ps3 for this??!?! :(

So sorry i didnt elaborate before. I was in 'f*$k that game' mode.For me:Too much time was spent stuffing around in the weapons menu. The constant going back and forth on maps was kinda meh after a while. i.e the dude after you get claptraps eye back, searching for his audio logs and checking in all the time and ugh, fail. Having to run back to the action in co-op mode when your up on those higher levels. And thats were i gave up. Just overall feels weak. Guess im a COD fanboi of sorts. In that id rather play COD on the WII than BL2 on the PS3

i.e the dude after you get claptraps eye back, searching for his audio logs -snip- And thats were i gave up.

That's like, at the beginning of the game. Sounds like you played the game for 10 minutes.

Guess im a COD fanboi of sorts. In that id rather play COD on the WII than BL2 on the PS3

Yes I'd recommend sticking to linear on-rails shooters where you rush through boxed-in hallways and are required to frequently tap X quickly to trigger a scripted action for uber self-accomplishment feelings.

Luckily for you "no you hang up" you can trade your copy in at EB games towards BLOPS II or something. So all is not lost.

Only a few things annoy me so far, The inventory and other screens are not set up well for PC IMO. BL 1 inventory was set out batter and I did not have to shift into a different pane to look at something or swap something.

I was referring to the amount of pointless backtracking the game has, (thats probably par for the course in a loot grinding game though) one particularly bad example was sacrificing some midget to a dragon or something, walked miiiiiles over a map i had already completed past enemies i had totally outlevelled (pretty much ignoring them) hit an action point, midget got executed... then my reward was to walk aaaaalll the way back and turn it in for a few bucks and xp.And even though the game is "95% outdoors" 95% of the battles take place in small areas as enemies don't spawn miles from you.

Found a pretty cool farming spot. Doing the mission "stalking the stalkers" leads to a random quest drop from stalker mobs which spawns a big badass version called Henry which spawns right below Outlook. Once you finish it he always spawns on a reload so I just killed him over and over about 20 times and on top of finding a unique I got this awesome head item.